International Women's Day
| International Women's Day | |
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German poster for International Women's Day, March 8, 1914 This poster was banned in Germany.
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| Observed by | Worldwide |
| Type | International |
| Significance |
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| Date | March 8 |
| Next time | March 8, 2018 |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Related to | |
International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8 every year. It commemorates the movement for women's rights.
The earliest Women's Day observance was held on February 28, 1909 in New York and organized by the Socialist Party of America. On March 8, 1917, in the capital of the Russian Empire, Petrograd, a demonstration of women textile workers began, covering the whole city. This was the beginning of the Russian Revolution. Seven days later, the Emperor of Russia Nicholas II abdicated and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. March 8 was declared a national holiday in Soviet Russia in 1917. The day was predominantly celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted in 1975 by the United Nations.
The earliest Women's Day observance was held on February 28, 1909 in New York and organized by the Socialist Party of America at the suggestion of Theresa Malkiel. It has been claimed that the event was commemorating a strike, but researchers have found no evidence of this, though the New York shirtwaist strike of 1909 began later that year. The story that the day originated in a protest by women garment workers in New York on March 8, 1857, has been described as a myth.
In August 1910, an International Women's Conference was organized to precede the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark. Inspired in part by the American socialists, German Socialist Luise Zietz proposed the establishment of an annual International Woman's Day (singular) and was seconded by fellow socialist and later communist leader Clara Zetkin, supported by Käte Duncker, although no date was specified at that conference. Delegates (100 women from 17 countries) agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights including suffrage for women. The following year on March 19, 1911 IWD was marked for the first time, by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone, there were 300 demonstrations. In Vienna, women paraded on the Ringstrasse and carried banners honouring the martyrs of the Paris Commune. Women demanded that they be given the right to vote and to hold public office. They also protested against employment sex discrimination. Americans continued to celebrate National Women's Day on the last Sunday in February.
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